Common enrollment: Lessons for Detroit

Common enrollment — in which a computer algorithm tries to match kids to their top-ranked schools — is one of the main reform ideas bubbling out of the discussions around reshaping public education in Detroit.(Photo: Dan Austin)

Story Highlights

Common enrollment is already in place in Denver, Newark, Washington and New Orleans.

The systems use an algorithm that tries to match students to their top choice schools.

In each system, applications are processed by a central clearinghouse.

Supporters of common enrollment in Detroit say the system would also need transportation.

When preparing to move to Washington, D.C., in 2012, Erika and Lamont Harrell spent so much time applying to charter schools that it felt like a full-time job.

They filled out 24 applications — a dozen for each of their two sons — and juggled different school websites and deadlines.

That was before My School DC, a common enrollment and lottery system that has one application and the same deadline schedule for most of the city's publicly funded schools, including charters. A week-long task one year turned into 20 minutes the next.

"The process is just so much easier, and it's less stressful," said Erika Harrell, 33.

More than 200 miles away, in Newark, N.J., the first days of the school year in September were marked by student and parent protests of a similar reform effort called One Newark. Some parents complained that their children were matched to far-away schools that they didn't put on their list.

Common enrollment — in which a computer algorithm tries to match kids to their top-ranked schools — is one of the main reform ideas bubbling out of the discussions around reshaping public education in Detroit.

Changing how kids enroll won't improve academics — a significant issue in a city where more than 80% of ranked schools in Detroit Public Schools are in the bottom quarter statewide. But supporters say it would give all families an equal shot at seats in sought-after schools, bring order to what is now a chaotic enrollment process and stabilize school rosters earlier in the year. The data gleaned from it could inform decisions on which schools should close.

Common enrollment can be tough to sell to parents, at least initially.

"It sounds like they're trying to take out of my hands the decision about where my child should go to school," said Maxine Clemons, 39, of Detroit, the parent of a 12-year-old girl.

Nakeisha Zirker, 38, of Detroit said she supports enrollment reform. Safety concerns prompted her to pull her teenage son out of Detroit Public Schools. When she decided to put him back two years later, she said she had a hard time finding information about schools and locating one that didn't require a special application.

"When I looked online, the DPS website still listed some schools that had been closed," she said. Navigating enrollment is "terrible, and it's hard."

The cities that have common enrollment — such as Denver, Newark, New Orleans and Washington — offer lessons for Detroit.

Officials there say they have had significant successes in getting kids matched with their top-choice schools.

But no system is perfect. In Denver, for example, researchers say common enrollment has been stable and successful, but lingering gaps remain in terms of participation by minority, special-ed and low-income students. They also said the city needs more seats in high-performing schools to meet demand.

Improving choice for all students

Common enrollment works best when all or most schools are involved, experts say. The systems have centralized management.

In Denver, where common enrollment launched in 2012, 100% of public schools participate, including charters.

Denver officials say they're happy with how it's working. In the system's first three years, between 76% and 89% of all students were matched with one of their choices, and between 64% and 72% got their first choice school, according to a recent study by the Seattle-based Center on Reinventing Public Education.

"Previously ... we had over 60 application processes and time lines, so only the savviest of parents were able to take advantage of school choice," said Roberta Walker, manager of choice and enrollment for Denver Public Schools.

The school district was an early supporter. A promise of transparency (the system is audited annually) and some pressure from foundations that fund charter schools helped bring charters on board, said Mike Kromrey, executive director of the community group Together Colorado.

Denver Public Schools runs the system, called SchoolChoice.

Getting everybody on board could be stickier in Detroit. The city has a decentralized education system with roughly 100 schools within Detroit Public Schools, 64 charter school districts (made up of 98 schools) and a 15-school reform district for the state's worst schools.

And with a dozen charter authorizers, Detroit has far more than the other cities. In Denver, for example, the public school district is the only charter authorizer.

The charter sector has exploded in Detroit in recent years, leading to fierce competition for students.

"It takes a great deal of trust across schools for everybody to commit to a centralized process," said Betheny Gross, senior analyst for the Center on Reinventing Public Education.

"A charter school is not naturally going to be inclined to hand over their enrollment process. ... Each child comes with a bundle of resources that funds their school."

In New Orleans, the common enrollment system called OneApp brought order and transparency to a chaotic process. But in a city where about 95% of students attend charters, some of the highest-performing schools have opted out.

"If every school isn't going to be in it, it doesn't resolve the problem that it was created to resolve. It doesn't give you access to every school," said Karran Harper Royal, a New Orleans resident and outspoken critic of OneApp.

Supporters say common enrollment has made it hard for schools to "cream" students — using back-door methods to selectively admit children or push others out. A principal couldn't specifically seek out students with good test scores, for example.

"In the absence of any meaningful regulation, this stuff can happen all the time," said Neil Dorosin, executive director of the New York-based Institute for Innovation in Public School Choice. The group helps build common enrollment systems.

In Newark, common enrollment was attacked by some families who complained siblings were split up. Mayor Ras Baraka publicly blasted what he called superintendent Cami Anderson's "secret" algorithm. Anderson has argued that, despite some initial bugs, the system has improved school access.

Newark officials have since added a feature that will allow families to move all of their children to the same school, Dorosin said.

Centralized authority

In cities with common enrollment, one authority oversees the systems.

Whereas the public school system runs common enrollment in Denver, in Washington, D.C., it falls under the deputy mayor for education. New Orleans' system is run by the state reform Recovery School District, with input from the local Orleans Parish School Board. The state-operated Newark Public Schools district handles enrollment there.

The applications that parents fill out are processed by a central clearinghouse.

In contrast, a Detroit parent who wants to sign up their kid for a DPS school today has to make an in-person visit. Three schools require an entrance exam, and one a performing arts audition. About two dozen DPS schools require an application.

The city's charter schools have their own applications, due dates and lotteries.

"There's no coordination now. A kid can get into Cass Tech High School and four different charters. The schools often don't know if they're actually going to get that kid" until well after the school year starts, Dorosin said. "It makes it difficult (for schools) to plan."

Districts don't get the full amount of state funding for students who enroll after the fall count day.

The nonprofit education group Excellent Schools Detroit is pushing for a new commission to oversee school openings and closings, transportation and enrollment across the city. The proposal comes as the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren is facing a March 31 deadline to come up with proposed school reforms.

Dan Quisenberry, president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, a charter advocacy group, said he can't comment on whether he supports common enrollment for Detroit because he hasn't seen a specific plan.

"The expansion of school choice and putting parents in the driver's seat has been the general path the government has been on. If recommendations were to come ... that restricted choice and artificially managed or regulated choice, I would ... think that many in the Legislature" would have serious questions, said Gary Naeyaert, executive director of the Great Lakes Education Project, a charter lobbying group.

Naeyaert said he believes "managed and regulated choice is not free and full choice."

Transportation would be key

Backers of common enrollment in Detroit say the system will work only if parents have access to transportation.

A Center on Reinventing Public Education study last year of school choice in eight cities — including Detroit — found that the biggest roadblocks for parents included reliable transportation for their kids.

School bus service can be spotty, and the city's bus system is unpredictable. Most charter schools provide no or limited transportation, which critics say shuts out students from low-income families.

Launched in 2011, Denver's regional Success Express transportation system serves all students and schools in the city's impoverished northeast, where about 20,000 kids live. There's also bus service or bus passes provided for kids who attend assigned neighborhood public schools. In New Orleans, most schools are required to provide school bus service or transit passes. In Washington, students get free or discounted public transportation.

Clemons, the Detroit parent, said she loves her 12-year daughter's charter school. But it's 3 miles from her home and doesn't offer busing, so she and her husband sometimes have to rely on friends and neighbors to drive her.

"I would really appreciate a bus system that would get all kids to school," she said.

Jeremy Vidito, executive director of Starr Educational Services, a nonprofit charter company, said one possibility for Detroit would be to create two zones — one on the east side and one on the west — and have transportation for students and schools within each area, he said.

But improving school transportation locally could be a challenge given the region's hodgepodge and deficient public transit system, Naeyaert said.

"Historically, this is a challenge we already have difficulty meeting," he said.

Long-term problems remain

While common enrollment could increase school choice, it won't fix long-term problems.

Academic performance across all sectors in Detroit is poor. Common enrollment has not been linked to improved academics.

"The real focus needs to be on quality schools in every neighborhood, so even families who don't get their top choice still have a good school to go to," said Tom Pedroni, an associate professor of curriculum studies at Wayne State University.

Nor would common enrollment address concerns about school safety, or DPS' roughly $169.5-million deficit. The district has been under emergency management for six years.

Parents also need a way to clearly gauge schools so they can make informed decisions about where to send their kids.

In cities where common enrollment exists, school guides help parents make choices. My School DC's online guide, for example, lists all schools and includes statistics on school quality and other information.

"Common enrollment systems appear to be really effective in improving the transparency and integrity of the enrollment process," said Gross of the Center on Reinventing Public Education. "In the end, they don't necessarily make the application and choosing process easier for families. There's a lot more that needs to happen in a city to help a parent choose schools for their child."

Contact Ann Zaniewski at 313-222-6594 or azaniewski@freepress.com.

How common enrollment works

■ Parents rank their top schools in order on an application. Every child is assigned a random lottery number.

■ An algorithm tries to match each student with his or her top choice first, then down the list. It can be built to factor in "preferences," such as whether a sibling already attends a certain school.

■ Children receive a single offer from the highest-ranked school with which they're matched. That minimizes the chances of a student holding multiple seats at different schools.

■ Families who are unhappy with their match can enter a subsequent round.

■ In some places, children don't need to do common enrollment if they plan to attend their assigned public district school. New Orleans has no automatic school assignments, so every parent has to make a choice.

Funding common enrollment

How common enrollment is funded varies from city to city.

■ The first year of My School DC, in 2014-15, was mostly funded with nearly $2 million in private grants from national and local foundations, including the Walton Family and Michael & Susan Dell foundations. The effort also received $300,000 in public funding through the DC Public Charter School Board and DC Public Schools.

■ In Denver, charter schools pay a percentage of their roughly 3% state per-pupil funding to support the system. The school district chips in from its general fund. Common enrollment costs $1.5 million annually, not including transportation.

■ Neil Dorosin, executive director of the New York-based Institute for Innovation for Public School Choice, said part of a $1.165-million donation from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation has been earmarked for work in Detroit. The institute, which builds and sells common enrollment algorithms, has been working with education leaders in Detroit to design a proposed system here.

Changes in law

Implementing full common enrollment in Detroit would require changes in law, said Richard McLellan, a Lansing-based attorney who helped write Michigan's charter school laws.

Charter schools are now required to conduct their own recruitment and admission activities. For example, charters with more applicants than seats have to hold random lotteries.

McLellan said any effort to impose mandatory common enrollment on all public schools in Detroit would require the Legislature to change the school code to shift existing admissions and enrollment responsibilities away from charter schools.

He said the state superintendent of public instruction has no power to order changes in legally required enrollment practices.

Any effort to reduce the number of charter authorizers would also require legislative action, he said.